Chapter Text
By Nicodemus Bueno
8th grade, Jan 30, 2024
Although not useless, history classes are irrelevant to the teenagers of today. There is much more to learn when it comes to today’s politics and events, and even though what happened in the past is relevant to what America is today there is no need to have years of classes that have to do with said topic. It is more important to learn about the history being created now.
History much like today is important in the education system of a child. With this essay, I do not mean to erase history classes altogether I mean to improve the way history is taught. I would like to improve the way children learn and the growth of our new generation. I understand that changes can not always be made but I was taught at a young age that “although you can not always make a change you can always try,”. This is my first attempt at changing the way our generation (Generation Z) is treated and the way we are viewed altogether.
As this essay is written we are learning about the Election of 1800. This election is one of, if not the most important election because it was one of the very first elections that started America's government. We need to learn about this due to the fact we have to learn about how our government was formed and the people who started building the America we all know today. This topic is important but already learned about in earlier grades. One solution to this “repeating of topics” is to have only 2-3 history classes required from grades 5-12. One during your middle school years and one during your high school years. With this said you would be required (or have the option) to take 1 general geography class during middle years and 1 general geography class during high school years. This class could be taken as an elective class or as a general/core class instead of history if wanted.
Students today are not getting the information they should be learning about. At the moment there is a genocide happening in Palestine and my current history teacher hasn’t mentioned it once. I have learned more about said genocide in my choir class than I did in my 8th grade Honors US History class. It is important to educate our student body about genocide and war especially if it is a current/relevant event. In history classes, we should also learn what is happening around the world and what has happened in the past 2-3 years. We could look at the impact that COVID-19 had on all of us or how the Ukraine vs. Russian war and how that affected us. My point is, we need to introduce a way of learning real-world problems.